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Day One at the Trey Culotta
Editor/12-22-12|1:30 a.m.

 

 

[Live updates may be found on Trey Culotta Webpage.]

After the first day of competition ended at the Trey Culotta Invitational, host-team Brother Martin was almost 100 points ahead of their nearest competitor.  The Crusaders racked-up 345 points, far ahead of the four teams vying for runner-up status: Catholic (249); Shawnee, OK (236); Vestavia Hills, AL (232); and Jesuit (217).  Rounding out the rest of the team scores are St. Paul's in 6th (189), East Ascension and St. Thomas tied for 7th (136), Fontainebleau 9th (128), Unattached Wrestlers at 10th (116), Houston, TX 11th (82), Mandeville 12th (81) and Shaw is 12th with 54.

Entering Saturday’s bracketed round the Crusaders have eight wrestlers who should be the #1 or #2 seed.

Friday’s matches consisted of a round-robin format in which each weight class was split into two pools of six wrestlers each.  1st and 3rd seeds, and 2nd and 4th seeds, were in the same pools.  Seeding may prove different once the brackets are released on Saturday.  Standard brackets have the #1 and #4 seeds on the top and the #2 and #3 seeds on the bottom.

Vestavia Hills' Dalton Campbell fares better vs. St. Thomas' Mason Lane than his Vestavia Hill's teammate vs. Fontainebleau's Daniel Priola (extreme left).  (Click to enlarge photo.) Houston, TN quintuplets?  No.  Houston coach Walt Holmes says his wrestlers get together before they host the Blackhorse Invitational every year and dye their hair the same color.  (Click to enlarge photo.)
East Ascension's Michael Bernard cradles Jesuit's Jackie Robinson en route to a second-period technical fall at 138 lbs.  (Click to enlarge photo.) Houston, TN's Travis Arthur is congratulated by his coaches after a win at 106 lbs.  (Click to enlarge photo.)

Louisiana favorites include Jesuit's Manny Armour (195 lbs.), Brother Martin's Paul Klein (120 lbs.), Devin LeBlanc (160 lbs.), Daniel Albrecht (170 lbs.) and Kyle Delaune (182 lbs.), St. Paul's Connor Campo (132 lbs.) and David Englehardt (145 lbs.) and Catholic's Brennan Taylor (126 lbs.) and Brandon Luckett (160 lbs.).  But aside from local competition from Mandeville, East Ascension, Fontainebleau and Archbishop Shaw, four out-of-state schools from Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas will also join the fray.

Some of Louisiana's best are not participating, including Mitch Capella and Gaston Eymard of Jesuit and Dominic Casadaban and Tyler Robertson of Brother Martin.

Catholic's Kevin Moran (top) vs. Joe Timberlake of Vestavia Hills at 152 lbs.
(Click to enlarge photo.)
Vestavia Hills' Jack Nelson (top) vs. Shawnee's Matt Daniel's at 160 lbs.
(Click to enlarge photo.)

Pool wrestling began today for the 12 teams participating in the tournament.  Each weight class was divided into two pools of six wrestlers each.  Each pool was run as a "round-robin" event today, guaranteeing each wrestler five matches today in weight classes in which every team has a competitor. 

"Unattached Wrestlers" make up a 13th team for the event, as they fill voids that were created when a school could not bring enough wrestlers to fill all 14 weight classes.

The top four wrestlers from each pool will be entered into an 8-man bracket on Saturday, with seeding based on pool results.  The remaining wrestlers in each pool will be guaranteed two consolation round matches.  Team points will be determined via individual placers from 1-8.  Semi-final matches should begin around noon with the finals set for approximately 3:00.

Shaw's Khalil Blue in an odd yet satisfactory position.
(Click to enlarge photo.)
Day one at the Trey Culotta Invitational.
(Click to enlarge photo.)

 Notable results of the round-robin round are presented below:

Weight NOTES
106 Top-seeded Alex Betteridge of East Ascension was 5-0, as was #2 Mason Mauro of Brother Martin.  Betteridge’s last match was a tough 10-8 win over #3 Nicky Charles of Jesuit.  It is likely Charles and Mauro will be in the bottom half of the bracket on Saturday and may meet in the semifinals.
113 Jesuit’s #1 seed Ben D’Antonio and #2 Taylor Gambrill of Brother Martin went undefeated at 5-0.  D’Antonio had a close match with Shawnee, OK’s Bryce O’Connor, the #3 seed.  O’Connor’s Saturday seeding will suffer due to a loss to #5 Jake Bernard of East Ascension.
120 Seeds are in alignment as #1 Paul Klein of the Crusaders went undefeated, as did #2 Michael Smith of Shawnee, OK.  Klein was a freshman Division I state champion last year whereas Smith placed 3rd in the Oklahoma state championships.
126 #1 Brennan Taylor of Catholic and #2 Austin Meyn of Brother Martin are on track to meet each other for the first time this season if standard seeding is used. Wade Nash, a Crusader filling in a space as an unattached wrestler might rise in the seeding stature as he defeated 3# Jeremy Strong of Vestavia Hills, AL.
132 As expected, St. Paul’s Connor Campo had a relatively easy time in his round-robin event, scoring three pins and two technical falls in his five matches.  #2 seed Matthew Mire of Catholic got through his pool unscathed also.
138

Vestavia Hill’s #1 seed Morgan Paugh allowed only one of his opponents into the second period before pinning him.  Daniels Evans of Brother Martin, seeded 5th, went 4-1 with a surprise 5-4 victory over #3 Clayton Stafford of Shawnee, OK.  In the other pool, Catholic’s James Claitor also went undefeated.

145 St. Paul’s top-seed David Englehardt is 5-0 as is #2 Will Knox of Vestavia Hills.
152 Daylan Stuteville of Shawnee, OK, the #1 seed, had little problem going 5-0 in his pool with four falls and a major decision.  Unexpected in that pool was Catholic’s Kevin Moran losing a match to someone other than Stuteville.  But Mandeville’s Garrett Baumann defeated Moran 12-10 in SV Pool “B” of 152 was also surprising as #4 Dominic Iovenetti of St. Paul’s upset #2 Jordan Giroir of Brother Martin 6-5 to go 5-0 on the day.
160

St. Thomas’ All-American Ricky Regas marred the undefeated season of Brother Martin’s #3 Devin LeBlanc with a 6-1 victory over the #3 seed in Pool “A.”  This was not Regas’ first time knocking Louisiana wrestlers out of the ranks of the undefeated this season, as he handed two-time defending Division I state champion Tyrek Malveaux of Comeaux a loss in the finals at The Woodlands Invitational. 

Brandon Luckett of Catholic, the #2 seed, did just what he was expected to do winning by three falls and 2x technical falls on his way to un undefeated pool record.

170 Travis Bradford of St. Thomas has a fairly easy time in his pool, whereas the rest of the members beat up on each other to the point that each had a least two losses.  #2 seed Daniel Albrecht went undefeated in Pool “B” albeit he had a tough match against Jesuit’s Jimmy Brown, winning 6-5.
182 #1 Kyle Delaune of the Crusaders had an easy round-robin with four falls and a technical fall.  In the other pool Gage Grush of Jesuit is also undefeated but 8th-seeded Aaron Gambino, wrestling unattached for Brother Martin, ended the round-robin matches with a 4-1 record due to a scheduled forfeit and another one from the 3rd seed Tim Davis of Vestavia Hills.
195

#1 seed Manny Armour of Jesuit won his first four matches by a combined score of 70-5.  In his last match he pinned Catholic’s Caleb Sutton.  In the other pool Gage Humphrey of Shawnee, OK, the 2nd seed, also went 5-0 with five pins of his opponents.

220 The first and second seeds, Dalton Campbell of Vestavia Hills, AL and Josh Tapia of Brother Martin each went undefeated and should not meet each other until the finals on Saturday, should they both make it that far.  3rd and 4th seeded Miles Nash of Catholic and Dom Carmello of Jesuit ended the day with one loss apiece, as expected.
285

Brother Martin’s #1 seed Ross Brister went undefeated and the rest of his pool beat up on each other with everyone else suffering at least two defeats.  In Pool “B” of 285, 2nd seeded Zac Creel of Jesuit lost two matches.  That leaves #4 Jahaad Jackson of Vestavia Hills and #10 Ryan Goodfox of Shawnee, OK, both at 4-1, although Goodfox’s loss came to Jackson, who should be seeded second on Saturday.

 As time allows updates will be posted on the Louisiana High School Wrestling Archives Website.

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